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Truth and the Internet
Top Health websites - Mostly lifted wholesale from the Guardian newspaper
- www.healthfinder.gov
- US government site. Useful gateway to respectable American Health sites.
Fun, easy-to-understand layout, and not squeamish about exciting headlines
(monkeys cloned by splitting Embryos).
- www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
- The NHS direct site. Use this to access NHS direct to find out information
about your illness and when to seek further help.
- www.patient.co.uk
- Provides a long list of patient groups in the UK and abroad. Also lists
telephone helplines and patient information leaflets that can can be sent
for.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
- Medline - the biggest medical database in the world, set up by the US National
Library of medicine, and mostly free. Almost any study published by a reputable
medical journal will be found here. Medline plus is more consumer friendly
at the same address.
- www.cafamily.org.uk
- Well presented support network for rare diseases. The charity also information
on rare disorders and diseases and will put families families touch with each
other.
- medweb.bham.ac.uk/cancerhelp
- Very comprehensive cancer information and links on Birmingham University
sites, incorporating much material from CancerBacup.
- www.phls.co.uk - Public
Health Laboratory Service website, contains official statistics on flu, meningitis
and any other infectious disease.
- www.headway.org.uk
- The brain injury association. A registered charity offering support to sufferers
of brain injuries.
- www.medisearch.co.uk
- The UK Medical search engine.
- www.sicklecellsociety.org
- Sickle Cell Society, information and counselling.
Beware of trusting all you can find about health on the Internet. These are
links to sites counselling caution also lifted wholesale from The Guardian Newspaper.
- www.quackwatch.com
- A huge compendium of crackpot therapies and miracle cures debunked by US
doctor and veteran fighter of quackery, Stephen Barrett.
- www.skepdic.com - The
Sceptics Dictionary lambastes spurious remedies with savage humour. Learn
why drinking your own urine or entrusting your illness to a crystal aren't
necessarily paths to joy and vitality.
- www.healthinfocus.org.uk
- Well-designed new site, backed by health charities and the Patients Association
to aid British Internet users seeking Healthcare online. Plentiful pages of
news, online discussions and reference sources.
- urbanlegends.about.com
- About.com's urban legends pages - David Emery's regularly updated catalogue
of hoaxes and frauds.
- www.snopes.com - Huge
catalogue of urban myths.